MODELS FOR GAMMA-RAY HOLDUP MEASUREMENTS AT DUCT CONTACT*

The use of gamma-ray measurements to nondestructively assay special nuclear material holdup in DOE processing facilities has increased recently. A measurement approach that is relatively insensitive to deposit geometry involves withdrawing the detector from the holdup-bearing equipment far enough to validate an assumed point-, line-, or area-source deposit geometry. Because of facility constraints, these generalized geometry procedures are not always followed, and some ducts are measured at contact. Quantitative interpretation of contact measurements requires knowledge of the width of the deposit transverse to the duct axis. Rocky Flats personnel have introduced a method to obtain data from which this width can be deduced. It involves taking measurements in pairs, with the detector viewing the holdup deposit at contact from above and below the duct. The interpretation of the top and bottom measurements to give the deposit width at each location requires a model for the detector's response to radial source position and a model for the deposit geometry. We have derived a relationship between the top-to-bottom count rate ratio and the deposit width that approximates the detector response and models the deposit geometry as a uniform strip. The model was validated in controlled experiments that used thin foils of high-enriched uranium metal to simulate duct deposits.